Rotten Vegetables
by piptook
Summary: (Written for Marigold's challenge 13) Why does Merry hate radishes so much?


He hated them. It wasn't the taste, the smell, or the look, no, in fact, before the "incident" he had been perfectly fine with them. They were even one of his favorite foods. Not anymore. It happened a few years ago when he and Pippin were out in Pippin's father's vegetable patch.

"Merry, look what I've found!" Pippin skipped ahead of Merry, his eight-year-old head bobbing up and down between the bean bushes.  
"What's that Pip?" Merry laughed, racing after his cousin.  
"RADISHES!" Pippin squatted on the ground and pulled up a lush green root, revealing a large, plump radish.  
"Yum!" Merry, ran over, plopped down next to his cousin and pulled up a radish for himself.  
"What do radishes taste like Merry? I know you love them." Pippin gazed thoughtfully up at his cousin.  
"You've never had a radish before?"

"Well, no."

"How could you have never eaten a radish before? My mum serves them all the time when you're over."

"I dunno, I guess I have been too busy eating everything else to really pay much attention to them." He shrugged "So, what do they taste like?"

"Well, that's hard to explain, the taste like….strawberries, only less sweet." Merry tried very hard to explain this new food to Pippin, but found it much more difficult than he thought it would be.  
"Like strawberries?" Pippin smiled happily and bit into one.  
"Kinda" Merry also took a bite out of his radish, and smiled at the wonderful taste now filling his mouth. He looked over at Pippin, wondering if he enjoyed the radishes as much as he did. Pippin had a very sad look on his face, and frowning, he turned to look at his cousin apologetically  
"I'm sorry, but I don't like radishes much." Pippin spit out the remaining radish in his mouth, still frowning.  
"It's ok Pip, everyone has different tastes. So what do you want to do now?"  
"I dunno, what do you want to do Merry?" the frown was wiped off Pippin's face and replaced with a grin.  
"Play a game maybe?" Merry also grinned.  
"TAG! YOUR IT!!!" Pippin ran off laughing, dodging in between patches of vegetables. The afternoon had gone on like that, Merry and Pippin playing their usual silly games, but Merry noticed that something was wrong with Pippin, he became slower throughout the day, eventually falling to the ground halfway to the tree he was going to climb.  
"Pip, are you ok?" Merry ran over to his cousin, and helped him into a sitting position.  
"No Merry, my stomach hurts."  
"Your stomach hurts? Do you feel sick?"  
"Yes….I'm…I'm sorry Merry!"  
"Sorry for what Pippin, you did nothing…" Merry began, but was cut off by Pippin leaning his head out of Merry's lap and throwing up. "Oh Pip!" Merry held his hair back for him, until it eventually slowed to just heavy gasps for air.

"Mmm sorry Merry." Pippin mumbled, laying his head back into Merry's lap.

"It's not your fault. It's ok, come on," Merry helped Pippin stand up, letting him lean into his shoulder. "Up you get, we have to get you home and to the healer." Merry half-carried Pippin back to the house where they were greeted by Pippin's Mum.

"Pippin, Merry glad your…what's wrong?" She rushed over to her nephew and helped support her son into his bedroom.

"I don't know." Merry sighed "One minute we were playing, the next he's in my lap throwing up everything he's eaten."

"Oh my!" Eglantine opened the door to Pippin's room for Merry, who laid Pippin on his bed. "I'll send for the healer." She hustled off, leaving a sick Pippin and a worried Merry in the room.

The healer had come in, and two hours later emerged from Pippin's room, closing the door behind him, he turned to face Merry, Eglantine, and Paladin sitting outside his door.

"Is Pippin going to be alright?" Paladin said, with a look of worry on his face.

"He'll be alright, it seems like he ate something that didn't sit too well with his stomach, either that or…"

"Radishes" Merry supplied helpfully, sighing.

"Radishes was it then? Well, make sure he doesn't eat any more of those, he must have some sort of bad allergy to them."

"Radishes?" Paladin repeated, confused "Since when has Pippin eaten radishes?"

"Pip and I found some in your garden this morning, he had never had one, and wanted to taste them, but he didn't like it and spit most of it out."

"I see. Well, there's not much you can do except treat his symptoms normally. He seems to have developed a fever…"

The healer droned on and on, but Merry wasn't listening to a word he was saying. The only thing that was going through his mind was that he had gotten Pippin sick, it was all his fault.

"Radishes Merry?" His mother brought him sharply back to earth, offering him a bowl of the red vegetables, another reminder of how Merry had made his cousin sick for two weeks after eating the things.

"No thanks mum. I don't eat radishes." Merry turned away from the bowl, remembering the thing he had told himself over and over while taking care of Pippin when he was sick. _The radishes made Pippin sick, so I am never going to eat radishes again!_

"Still on about that "radish incident" is he?" His mother gave his father an exasperated look. "Why won't he just realize that it wasn't the radishes at all that made Pippin sick, but the fact that his ill sister just gave him the flu!"


End file.
